


The Summer Boundary

by JustALittleProblem



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Boys In Love, Bullying, But only a little, Hurt/Comfort, I put dream ensemble but its really just mentioned, Light Angst, M/M, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 10:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16061333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustALittleProblem/pseuds/JustALittleProblem
Summary: There’s nothing left for Donghyuck in this sleepy old ghost town.





	The Summer Boundary

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to post something so. :) Here's something I've had in the works for awhile. It's un-beta'd though, sorry :( I hope you enjoy anyways!

The heat of the summer reminds Donghyuck of long drives along the beach in Mark’s beat-up truck, windows down and wind in his hair. In his memories, Mark has one hand on the wheel and the other resting in the space between the seats, sleeveless shirt flapping soundlessly as the radio belts out line after line of meaningless pop music. The relentless sun has drawn Donghyuck of out his skinny jeans and sweatshirt, and he throws his arms out the window to feel alive in his ratty band tee and hand-me-down basketball shorts. In his memories, Donghyuck lives through the longest summer of his life.

 

~

 

Mark and Donghyuck start as neighbours, choking out stuttered greetings in a language only foreign to them. They learn the words with time and no small amount of patience from Mark’s end as Donghyuck earns his status in the Troublemaker’s Hall of Fame. Donghyuck’s parents scold him time and time again as he folds dangerous words with his tongue, a melodious voice filled with promise that lures Mark in like a sailor to a siren.

 

Mark is a year older than Donghyuck, but ends up in the same Korean class as him. When they begin the ocean segment, Donghyuck coerces Mark into walking the length of the local beach with nothing but a few bottles of water and the clothes on their back. The language of the water is not unfamiliar to him, but Mark teeters at the edge of the shore and fears the cold bite of the water against ankles. He relays this fear to Donghyuck, but Donghyuck only laughs because he knows the water as a friend, not a beast. Still, he emerges quickly and lets the sand cling longingly to his wet calves as he begins to trek back, Mark trailing slowly at his heels. The sun sets gradually, shedding gorgeous peels of orange and pink behind them as they walk slowly back to Donghyuck’s beachside house, but they are young and don’t yet know how to look back.

 

~

 

A year after their first time at the beach, they learn how to make promises they can’t keep. Mark sits along the shore and finally lets the water tickle his feet as Donghyuck splashes about deeper in, one wave colliding with another, and screams his dreams into the limitless horizon. There’s a throbbing in his chest he could recognize as fondness but chooses not to in favour of encapsulating this moment forever: Donghyuck’s recently dyed red hair glowing like fire, a torch amidst the dark waves. The weight of the sunlight reflecting off of Donghyuck’s hair and brightening Donghyuck’s eyes consumes the entire memory, and years later, the only thing he remembers is the warmth of the water on his toes and the feeling of a fragile forever.

 

Mark starts high school a year before Donghyuck, and they no longer share a Korean class. Despite this, Mark rolls by every day in his worn down truck with the sputtering engine, picks him up and takes him out. They don’t have a name for these kinds of outings, but the whispers in the hallways at Donghyuck’s school are kind enough to name them for him. There are less kind words thrown about when Donghyuck walks past, whispered in raised voices so that he knows what a fuck up they think he is. He has never paid them much attention, not when Mark takes his arms and wraps them around his neck, not when he feels so truly happy. The words nip playfully at his heels and leave superficial scars, the kind that can be healed with Band-Aids and kisses.

 

High school for Donghyuck starts marginally worse, and he starts bringing back beautiful flowers in the form of dark, blooming bruises along the tan skin of his back. He keeps them hidden like bouquets from a secret lover, masks pain behind too bright smiles and empty eyes. Mark notices sooner than Donghyuck would have liked (some variation of never) and it becomes a hundred times harder to figure out where one of them ends and the other begins, especially when Mark’s arms learn how to bloom the way Donghyuck’s do. Donghyuck cries and begs Mark to stop, tells him over and over that he’s fine and that he doesn’t need Mark to fight his battles. Mark smiles and kisses the tears away each time, runs his fingers through Donghyuck’s hair once he’s tired himself out and falls asleep in his lap.

 

It’s a surprise to no one when one day, Donghyuck stops attending classes, stops causing trouble in the hallways and in the classrooms, and stops the bittersweet purple from decorating Mark. Instead, he spends his time breathing in ocean salt and letting the burning sand leave memorable marks along the balls of his feet. He escapes the bruises for awhile like this, heals from the warm rays of the sun for a brief eternity before everything comes crashing down.

 

~

 

Donghyuck’s second summer of high school starts without fanfare, it’s what comes later that sends alarms ringing all across town. It’s hard to say how things that are not lost can be found, but Donghyuck is living, breathing proof. He’s living, breathing proof when someone (Renjun, Jaemin, Jisung, Jeno, _someone_ ) finds him broken and bloodied along the beach, saltwater licking at his wounds and stinging like the sharp edge of betrayal. He’s living, breathing proof when they shuttle him in the ambulance, alarms blaring like waves beating against the shore. He’s living, breathing proof even bathed in the bright lights of the local hospital, Mark sobbing by his side while he feels nothing.

 

Mark stops by every day of the 2 weeks that Donghyuck spends in this white paradise, loopy and smiling but never happy. He slips his hands into Donghyuck’s and shivers at the new porcelain quality of his skin, pale and cold against his palm. On days when Donghyuck is awake, Mark talks and talks and talks even though Donghyuck gives no indication of listening, smiling with a blank expression that Mark comes to hate. When Donghyuck is sleeping, he sits there and sobs and hopes his tears will breathe life back into the sun.

 

Donghyuck’s second summer means that Mark is on his third and final summer before university applications, and the first reaction Mark gets out of Donghyuck during his whole stay at the hospital is when Mark promises to stay. Donghyuck throws a fit so wild that the nurses come scuttling in, throwing him dirty looks and empty threats. He holds out a solitary pinky and screams and yells, but Mark only reluctantly offers his own when he begs, slow and sad. Their linked pinkies seal heartbreak into their future, but Donghyuck would rather die than keep Mark trapped here in a town with monotonous waves and angry waters.

 

Later that year, when Mark finally receives his acceptance letter to Seoul National, Donghyuck is the first one throwing his arms around his neck. He hides his tears behind congratulations and wails into the darkness later that night, the moon blinking somberly back down at him and drawing the tides high to hide his whimpers.

 

~

 

It’s the last summer before Mark leaves for university, the last summer of Donghyuck’s life. Mark spends it worshipping the ground the Donghyuck walks on, and Donghyuck spends it curled up against Mark’s side, ignoring the rest of the world. Mark’s parents get used to having a second son, and Donghyuck’s parents prepare for the aftermath of the coming storm. Sometimes, Donghyuck comes home with rings of flowers around his head and stars in his eyes, shining earnest and melancholic. On those days, there is no one on this world capable of stopping the rivers on his cheeks.

 

That doesn’t mean Mark doesn’t try. He breathes a lifetime into every second with Donghyuck and spends every day like tomorrow was a strange, ambiguous concept. He smiles to match the ferocity of Donghyuck’s tears, counts every drop that leaves his eyes and matches a flower to each dew. They balance their lives on the precipice of a careless infinity, one where Mark stays and Donghyuck lives. It’s only by cruel conspiration of the universe that Mark leaves, taking away hopes and dreams and the only Donghyuck that the small town has. Behind, time and destruction carve bodies into empty shells that litter the shore, far out of reach from the waves that can carry them away.

 

Days turn fast into weeks turn fast into months. They ignore the twisted hands of fate until it grasps them by their necks, throwing Mark towards the land and Donghyuck towards the sea. As the car grows fuller and fuller with superficial needs, they feel the memories slip out one by one, whispers lost forever to the calm sea breeze. There’s not enough time in the world for them to relive every precious moment, but they make do with what they have.

 

Under the watchful gaze of the merciless hourglass, Donghyuck presses cold fingers to Mark’s face as he leans in for a final promise. His eyes come away only partly dry, but the lingering wetness on his face makes Mark long for the ocean once again. When he captures Donghyuck’s hands between his own, they feel cool and distant in his palms. It’s the coldest the sun has ever been. He pulls his hands away and buries the feeling deep, a lingering sliver of wistful desire threatening to bubble over. He curbs it by stepping away, putting distance between his past and his future as he opens the door to his truck. The years erase as he settles into his seat, the pinch of longing insistent but ultimately forgettable. When he checks the rearview mirror, he sees the vast expanse of love and security. He turns away and looks forward into the unknown. The engine roars and throws him into the abyss. When he glances back for the final time, there is nothing. Just a quiet town and a boy he loves.

 

~

 

Donghyuck doesn’t wave when his eyes meet Mark’s, and the gap that spreads between them as his old beat-up pickup truck pulls out of the driveway tears his heart in two. He stares first as it rolls shakily down the worn road of their neighbourhood before the increasing distance scares him into action. He screams and tastes salt on his lips from the ocean in his eyes, arms reaching out and running until the truck disappears behind the bend that will lead Mark to a future in the city, a future without Donghyuck. He feels arms wrap around him as he stops chasing hope, feels the lingering tendrils of disappointment crash into his heart like waves into a ship at sea. He closes his eyes and wishes for another memory.

**Author's Note:**

> Yell at me in the comments hehe... Also I'm thinking of expanding this into a larger AU with more closure, so hit me up there too if you like that idea. 
> 
> But thanks Mieke for reading and critiquing the initial draft! I hope it's everything you hoped it would be!


End file.
